Huskies Add to Day of Misery for WSU on Basketball Court

In a physical game, Danny Sprinkle's team was up to the task against its rival.

Huskies Jase Butler and Wilhelm Breidenbach rush to help up Mekhi Mason in a physical game with the WSU. / Skylar Lin Visuals

On the same overly exasperating day that Washington State lost its football coach to Wake Forest and its standout quarterback to Oklahoma, the Cougars couldn't stop the misery and dropped a basketball game to rival Washington.

In terms of pain threshold, the best way to put it was WSU was subjected to a lost 24 hours and the Huskies were not in comforting mood whatsoever at Alaska Airlines Arena and pulled away in the second half for a 89-73 victory on Wednesday night.

For the first time all season, first-year coch Danny Sprinkle and his mostly new UW basketball players got a chance to see what the atmosphere felt like when their arena is nearly full and rocking with energy from start to finish. It helped that plenty of Cougars fans filled the seats, which is usually the case.

"It kind of surprised me how many Washington State people were in here," guard Tyree Ihenacho said. Hearing both sides, of our fans cheering for us and their fans booing us, it was good motivation. I'm glad the way we responded to it."

Play was noticeably physical with both teams regularly attacking the hoop and players getting bumped hard and sent crashing to the floor as they made their way through the key.

The Huskies (8-3 overall, 0-2 Big Ten) were much more resilient, using a 14-4 run to open the second half for a 49-35 advantage and decide this one. WSU (9-3) had a three-game win streak come to an end.

"I just like the grit and effort that we had -- like we scrapped," Sprinkle said. "We've been talking about synergy and I didn't feel like we had been connected yet this year."

Emotions reached an apex when the Cougars' Isaiah Watts -- son of former Husky Donald Watts -- went in for a thunderous dunk with 16:40 left to play and his team trailing 44-35, and then got in Great Osobor's face to tell him about it. Watts drew a technical foul for his outburst, while the crowd was still buzzing.

Here's how crazy this one was: WSU enjoyed a 42-23 in rebounds and still lost.

A closely played first half turned into a scoring battle at times between a new Husky guard and an old one.

The UW finally took the lid off long-range shooter DJ Davis, who started the game and dropped in 11 first-half points of his team-high and season-best 21. His 3-pointer from the right side with 5:37 left pulled the Huskies into a 25-all tie after they had trailed much of the opening half, and they were never behind again. He shot 4-for-10 from the field and 3-for-7 in treys.

"This was the most together we've been probably all season," Davis said. "Cheering for each other and playing for one another."

Former Husky Nate Calmese, the 2023 Southland Conference Freshman of the Year for Lamar but relegated to the bench last season by previous Husky coach Mike Hopkins, responded with 8 points in the opening 20 minutes, though he was far from pinpoint in missing all four of his first-half 3-pointers. He finished with a game-high 21 points on 8-for-18 shooting, 2 of 7 behind the line.

A ceiling view of the UW-WSU basketball game, with Zoom Diallo ready to make a move on the Cougars' LeJuan Watts. / Skylar Lin Visuals

With 3:08 before intermission, play turned so rough that the UW's 6-foot-10 Wilhelm Breidenbach and the Cougars' 6-foot-11 Dane Erikstrup got tangled up under the west-end basket, and together they went crashing hard to the floor.

Both players lay on their backs for a long time while trainers attended to them. Erikstrup, who was whistled for his third foul on the play, got up first, flexing his right shoulder. Breidenbach was helped up and gingerly walked straight to the locker room, holding an ice pack pressed to the left side of his head. He didn't play again.

The half ended with the Huskies up 35-31, though WSU's Elhan Price scored right before the buzzer to keep his team hopeful. Twenty minutes of players talking trash and getting knocked to the floor remained. At least the Cougars didn't have much of anything left to lose anywhere in their athletic department.

The Huskies finished with six players in double figures, caused 22 turnovers and shot 10 of 21 from behind the 3-point line.

"Obviously, it was the best we've played," Sprinkle said. "The game is so much easier when you're making shots."

Two days before Christmas, the UW will return to action with a Monday night home game against Seattle University (4-7), another rival, though one not quite so despised.

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